Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-07-08
THE PANHANDLE.
Where the Capitalist and Home. Seeks or
Fix their Gaze, the One for an In
Vestment, the Other for Home.
a Fortune to be Made IN Land in the Next
Few Ysars-The Poor Man VIII Grow
Rich, and tho Rich Man Richer.

QUANAH, TEX, June 2S.-A trip up the
Fort Worth and Denver is O genuine
pleasure, even to man who dislikas
travelling, for several reasons: 1t enables
him to enjoy q steady breeze Of pure
fresh air as invigoratinG SIS champagne
and as refreshing as if Just waited from
the sea; it is devoid of the disagreeable
incidents eff dust and smoke. The man
with an Immaculate shirt bosom need not
fear to expose 1t to days Journey in the
! ladies car of the Denver Road. At
its end he might without blush step
| from the car TO the parIOr or ball room.
In the popular slang of the day, the Den
! yer is SO daisy railroad" Its cars are
new, clean and comfortable, its track gs
| smooth as any in the state, and its Off
Gals and employees, from president to
! porter, souls of cleverness. But the
most attractive feature Of such 8 trip is
the opportunity which it gives to obseryant
| passengers to study the condition and the
possibilities of the coming empire of the
sOuthWest-the Panhandle OF Texas A
few weeks back, while travelling through
eastern states, l was surprised at the in
terest shown everywhere in this section.
On every map Of TeXas-and they are
rapidly increasing in circulation in the
- zt-Was traced pencil lines through the
EIEaGndle, which betrayed the mental
/ EQUATIONS CT some would-be
ss..ler. People who lad neyef
.gen further west than the
Mississippi spoke Ct ii as the future res
ervCir of the tide OF western imn3gra-
ton. It's resources were unquesti01ed;
all seemed to regard it as the mos desir-
able section open 20 q man seeking 9
home in the west. How the Panhandle
attained this WelI-deserVed reputation
l do not know; it has had
but little advertising, and
has been its own spokesman.
The fact remains, and is attested
by the rapidly changing conditions Of the
country, that the eyes of speculative esp
ital and hOme-seekers the world over are
fixed upon the Panhandle. This interest
is bringing forth its legitimate fruits; the
hammer Ci development has taken on q
clear, steady ring; tents are giving way
TO cabins and cabins 10 neat wooden
dwellings,; blades of tall, productive corn
OvsTshadOW Wondering leaves of grass;
the buzz Of machinery IN many enclosures
browns the songs and maledictiOnS of
the cowboy. The smoke of the lOComO-
tive has permeated the atmosphere of the
plains, and when its first mists shall have
cleared away civilization, with sll its sttri-
b ties, its Injuries, its COnvenienCes, its
fOllies, its vices, Will be found thoroughly
entreEChed.
OF what aTTant nonsense Henry George
is guilty! It would seem that sympathy
Tor ''the landless poor" is sheer seuti-
mentAlism when 900, 900 families might
find comfortable homes in the Panhandle
of Texas almost for coming. In Tennes-
see, not long since, was shown across 8
farm of 100 acres which had
recently been purchased for So
per acre. The land was considered the
best in the neighborhood, and yet its
owner was compelled TO rely upon fer
tilizers to produce an average crop. The
price Of that farm would buy 1900 acres
in the Panhandle, worth iltrin-
sically, three times as much
per acre as the Tennessee land. |
HoY can the farmers of the east remain
content Cramped up In little hOmesteads
0ffifty and one hundred acres, burdened
With heavy mortgages which only the
IshOrs of 3 lifetime can lift. when pros
'perous, happy homes are to be had on
srch easy terms in the west? 1t must
U
the, west which detains them. Surely
il the farmer who ekes out g bare living
among the ROCKS and mountains and sand
hills of the,e east could realize that his
humble hone might be exchanged for
enough TSS territory in Texas TO entitle
him to a barOnetCy if it were English
soil, he would speedily volunteer in the
enthusiastic army of pioneers. TIE /
or
Oe repeated. Five years ago
some of the finest lands in the Panhandle /
were sold for 81 an acre. In tive years |
those lands have thri5bled and quad
rupled in value. The man who makes G .
judicious investment of 5000 III Panhan- /
die lands now, viii be able st the end OF /
Investment at profit of $4,000, I
though bear-like he should enter cave .
and sleep through the whole intermediate .
period.
There was time when a man would |
have as soon thought of planting bananas
in New Foundisnd, as of sowing wheat in |
long ago. Now any We'll informed |
man is ready to vOuch for
the opinion that this section is destined
Is not fiction invented by Iand pecula-
tors; it is the deliberate judgment Of
men who have tested the matter Dy the.
piumD-line of experience. Corrobora-
tive evidence is so strong
the Wsyfaring man needs no
other testimony than that furnished
by his own observation. All along the
line Of the Fort Worth and Denver from
Wichita Falls (OIce supposed 10 be out
Of the agricultural belt) to Quanah
there are fields of corn and wheat IN the
shock which will exceed in production
the best farms in Eastern and Central
Texas. In the office of the Advance
81 this place, Mr.. W. w. West, the editor,
showed me to-day some splendid speci-
mems Of agricultural products, raised
within four miles OF Quanah. These
specimens were selected as fair averages
Of the crops from which they were taken.
In the following statement of
the production of these crops,
corn alone is estimated and Judging by
he sample and the outlook it will exceed
'ather than fall below the estimate:
Corn, fOTty-tiye bushels per acre.
Oats, siXty-tiVe bushels per acre.
Wheat, twenty-five bushels per acre.
Alillett, four tons per acre.
Egyptian corn, four tons per acre.
Rye, very fae.
Egyptian grass, six feet tall. I
The natural growth Of the country is
ood bearing vegetation. The soil is /
black and chocolate wax, with Just sufi-
lent sand to scour plow. II is well :
10 Cd 70 FWr1TF 1o1I I